MAMI back on track; Rs 2.25 crore more needed

India's premiere film festival which was on verge of downing its shutters is slowly limping back to normalcy with funds and other monetary assistance pouring in from all quarters. With the firm backing of Anand Mahindra and other bigwigs of Bollywood, MAMI is all set to open from 14 October in the maximum city of Mumbai. At a press conference held yesterday to announce the launch of MAMI, notable personalities from B-town including Anurag Kashyap, Anupama Chopra, Vikramaditya Motawane, Kiran Rao and Farhan Akhtar joined hands to lend their solidarity in every possible way to keep the festival up and running like previous seasons. In its 16th year now, the festival faced its worst possible cash crunch ever when prime sponsors Reliance backed out from sponsoring the event this year. Thankfully, the leading lights of Bollywood took a welcome step forward and loosened their purse strings in helping the organizers accumulate the necessary finance required. Aamir Khan notably contributed 11 lakh to the cause. Speaking on the occasion, his wife Kiran Rao said, "We had to make the festival happen this year and I am happy that the entire film industry has taken it up as a cause to see that the festival is back to where it belongs. There was a lot of anxiety in the beginning and we are a little fragile today as compared to earlier times. But thankfully we have received support from all around the world with journalists belong to the Thai Post and Screen International donating money for the same. It's our responsibility to see that the festival maintains its high standards going forward and doesn't come to such a pass anytime in future." Echoing Kiran's were filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane both of whom are ardent festival goers. "We request not just our industry but also cinephiles all over to support MAMI in its endeavour," said Anurag. While interest in festival has not generally waned, the trustees of MAMI pointed out to the existing generation gap as the reason behind the paucity of funds. Said Amit Khanna, a trustee, "The younger generation earlier didn't show great interest in propelling MAMI further but thankfully now it has been injected with fresh young vigour." Even though MAMI is set to open next month, the festival still needs close to 2.25 crore to return back to its former glory. The scarcity of finance this season would mean curtailment in the many facilities that are usually offered to visiting delegates. There would be reduction in the number of screens and the grandeur of the festival has also been significantly scaled down keeping in mind the tight budget. Festival director Srinivasan Narayanan also thanked all those who had significantly contributed this year towards the festival.“This year’s festival stands testimony to the deep-rooted belief of the film fraternity and film lovers in this event. The much anticipated festival would not have been possible without the incredible support from industry stalwarts, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, RajKumar Hirani, Manish Mundra, Anand Mahindra and Rohit Khattar and most of all. Anupama Chopra’s passion and hard work at every step of organizing this mega event. We are elated to see this kind of support and are thankful to everyone who have contributed in their own way to make this festival rise like a phoenix,” said Srinivasan. The Mumbai Film Festival will run from 14 to 21 October and Liberty and PVR cinemas have been chosen as the venues for screening the movies. Movies have been divided and distributed among 10 different categories this time namely - International Competition, Above The Cut, World Cinema, Rendezvous, The Real Reel, Retrospective of Russian Films, India Gold 2014, New Faces In Indian Cinema, Dimensions Mumbai, Film India Worldwide. A treat for all cine lovers, we say.